Whitaker, Jerry C. Analog Circuits The Resource Handbook of Electronics. Ed. Jerry C.

Whitaker Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC, 2001

2001 by CRC PRESS LLC

Chapter

13
Analog Circuits
13.1 Introduction
Amplifiers are the functional building blocks of electronic systems, and each of these building blocks typically contains several amplifier stages coupled together. An amplifier may contain its own power supply or require one or more external sources of power. The active component of each amplifier stage is usually a transistor or an FET. Other amplifying components, such as vacuum tubes, can also be used in amplifier circuits if the operating power and/or frequency of the application demands it.

13.2 Single-Stage Transistor/FET Amplifier

The single-stage amplifier can best be described using a single transistor or FET connected as a common-emitter or common-source amplifier, using an npn transistor (Figure 13.1a) or an n-channel FET (Figure 13.1b) and treating pnp transistors or p-channel FET circuits by simply reversing the current flow and the polarity of the voltages. At zero frequency (dc) and at low frequencies, the transistor or FET amplifier stage requires an input voltage E1 equal to the sum of the input voltages of the device (the transistor Vbe or FET Vgs) and the voltage across the resistance Re or Rs between the common node (ground) and the emitter or source terminal. The input current I1 to the amplifier stage is equal to the sum of the current through the external resistor connected between ground and the base or gate and the base current Ib or gate current Ig drawn by the device. In most FET circuits, the gate current may be so small that it can be neglected, while in transistor circuits the base current Ib is equal to the collector current Ic divided by the current gain beta of the transistor. The input resistance R1 to the amplifier stage is equal to the ratio of input voltage E1 to input current I1. The input voltage and the input resistance of an amplifier stage increases as the value of the emitter or source resistor becomes larger. The output voltage E2 of the amplifier stage, operating without any external load, is equal to the difference of supply voltage V+ and the product of collector or drain load

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( a)

(b)

( c)

Figure 13.1 Single-stage amplifier circuits: (a) common-emitter NPN, (b) common-source n-channel FET, (c) single-stage with current and voltage feedback.

resistor R1 and collector current Ic or drain current Id. An external load will cause the device to draw an additional current I2, which increases the device output current. As long as the collector-to-emitter voltage is larger than the saturation voltage of the transistor, collector current will be nearly independent of supply voltage. Similarly, the drain current of an FET will be nearly independent of drain-to-source voltage as long as this voltage is greater than an equivalent saturation voltage. This saturation voltage is approximately equal to the difference between gate-to-source voltage and pinch-off voltage, the latter being the bias voltage that causes nearly zero drain current. In some FET data sheets, the pinch-off voltage is referred to as the threshold voltage. At lower supply voltages, the collector or drain current will become less until it reaches zero, when the drain-to-source voltage is zero or the collector-to-emitter voltage has a very small reverse value.

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The output resistance R2 of a transistor or FET amplifier stage isin effectthe parallel combination of the collector or drain load resistance and the series connection of two resistors, consisting of Re or Rs, and the ratio of collector-to-emitter voltage and collector current or the equivalent drain-to-source voltage and drain current. In actual devices, an additional resistor, the relatively large output resistance of the device, is connected in parallel with the output resistance of the amplifier stage. The collector current of a single-stage transistor amplifier is equal to the base current multiplied by the current gain of the transistor. Because the current gain of a transistor may be specified as tightly as a two-to-one range at one value of collector current, or it may have just a minimum value, knowledge of the input current is usually not quite sufficient to specify the output current of a transistor.

13.2.1 Impedance and Gain

The input impedance is the ratio of input voltage to input current, and the output impedance is the ratio of output voltage to output current. As the input current increases, the output current into the external output load resistor will increase by the current amplification factor of the stage. The output voltage will decrease because the increased current flows from the collector or drain voltage supply source into the collector or drain of the device. Therefore, the voltage amplification is a negative number having the magnitude of the ratio of output voltage change to input voltage change. The magnitude of voltage amplification is often calculated as the product of transconductance Gm of the device and the load resistance value. This can be done as long as the emitter or source resistance is zero or the resistor is bypassed with a capacitor that effectively acts as a short circuit for all signal changes of interest but allows the desired bias currents to flow through the resistor. In a bipolar transistor, the transconductance is approximately equal to the emitter current multiplied by 39, which is the charge of a single electron divided by the product of Boltzmanns constant and absolute temperature in degrees Kelvin. In a field-effect transistor, this value will be less and usually proportional to the input-bias voltage, with reference to the pinch-off voltage. The power gain of the device is the ratio of output power to input power, often expressed in decibels. Voltage gain or current gain can be stated in decibels but must be so marked. The resistor in series with the emitter or source causes negative feedback of most of the output current, which reduces the voltage gain of the single amplifier stage and raises its input impedance (Figure 13.1c). When this resistor Re is bypassed with a capacitor Ce, the amplification factor will be high at high frequencies and will be reduced by approximately 3 dB at the frequency where the impedance of capacitor Ce is equal to the emitter or source input impedance of the device, which in turn is approximately equal to the inverse of the transconductance Gm of the device (Figure 13.2a). The gain of the stage will be approximately 3 dB higher than the dc gain at the frequency where the impedance of the capacitor is equal to the emitter or source resistor. These simplifica-

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( a)

(b)

Figure 13.2 Feedback amplifier voltage gains: (a) current feedback, (b) voltage feedback.

tions hold in cases where the product of transconductance and resistance values are much larger than 1. A portion of the output voltage may also be fed back to the input, which is the base or gate terminal. This resistor Rf will lower the input impedance of the single amplifier stage, reduce current amplification, reduce output impedance of the stage, and act as a supply voltage source for the base or gate. This method is used when the source of input signals, and internal resistance Rs, is coupled with a capacitor to the base or gate and a group of devices with a spread of current gains, transconductances, or pinch-off voltages must operate with similar amplification in the same circuit. If the feedback element is also a capacitor Cf, high-frequency current amplification of the stage will be reduced by approximately 3 dB when the impedance of the capacitor is equal to the feedback resistor Rf and voltage gain of the stage is high (Figure 13.2b). At still higher frequencies, amplification will decrease at the rate of 6 dB per octave of frequency. It should be noted that the base-collector or gate-drain capacitance of the device has the same effect of limiting high-frequency amplification of the stage; however, this capacitance becomes larger as the collector-base or drain-gate voltage decreases. Feedback of the output voltage through an impedance lowers the input impedance of an amplifier stage. Voltage amplification of the stage will be affected only as this lowered input impedance loads the source of input voltage. If the source of input voltage has a finite source impedance and the amplifier stage has very high voltage amplification and reversed phase, the effective amplification for this stage will approach the ratio of feedback impedance to source impedance and also have reversed phase.

13.2.2 Common-Base or Common-Gate Connection

For the common-base or common-gate case, voltage amplification is the same as in the common-emitter or common-source connection; however, the input impedance is

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( a)

(b)

( c)

(d)

Figure 13.3 Transistor amplifier circuits: (a) common-base NPN, (b) cascode NPN, (c) common-collector NPN emitter follower, (d) split-load phase inverter.

approximately the inverse of the transconductance of the device. (See Figure 13.3a.) As a benefit, high-frequency amplification will be less affected because of the relatively lower emitter-collector or source-drain capacitance and the relatively low input impedance. This is the reason why the cascade connection (Figure 13.3b) of a common-emitter amplifier stage driving a common-base amplifier stage exhibits nearly the dc amplification of a common-emitter stage with the wide bandwidth of a common-base stage. Another advantage of the common-base or common-gate amplifier

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Figure 13.4 Amplitude-frequency response of a common-emitter or common-source amplifier.

stage is stable amplification at very high frequencies and ease of matching to RF transmission-line impedances, usually 50 to 75 .

13.2.3 Common-Collector or Common-Drain Connection

The voltage gain of a transistor or FET is slightly below 1.0 for the common-collector or common-drain configuration. However, the input impedance of a transistor so connected will be equal to the value of the load impedance multiplied by the current gain of the device plus the inverse of the transconductance of the device (Figure 13.3c). Similarly, the output impedance of the stage will be the impedance of the source of signals divided by the current gain of the transistor plus the inverse of the transconductance of the device. When identical resistors are connected between the collector or drain and the supply voltage and the emitter or source and ground, an increase in base or gate voltage will result in an increase of emitter or source voltage that is nearly equal to the decrease in collector or drain voltage. This type of connection is known as the split-load phase inverter, useful for driving push-pull amplifiers, although the output impedances at the two output terminals are unequal (Figure 13.3d). The current gain of a transistor decreases at high frequencies as the emitter-base capacitance shunts a portion of the transconductance, thereby reducing current gain until it reaches a value of 1 at the transition frequency of the transistor (Figure 13.4). From this figure it can be seen that the output impedance of an emitter-follower or common-collector stage will increase with frequency, having the effect of an inductive source impedance when the input source to the stage is resistive. If the source impedance is inductive, as it might be with cascaded-emitter followers, the output impedance of such a combination can be a negative value at certain high frequencies and be a possible cause of amplifier oscillation. Similar considerations also apply to common-drain FET stages.

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( a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 13.5 Output load-coupling circuits: (a) ac-coupled, (b) series-parallel ac, push-pull half-bridge, (c) single-ended transformer-coupled.

13.2.4 Bias and Large Signals

When large signals have to be handled by a single-stage amplifier, distortion of the signals introduced by the amplifier itself must be considered. Although feedback can reduce distortion, it is necessary to ensure that each stage of amplification operates in a region where normal signals will not cause the amplifier stage to operate with nearly zero voltage drop across the device or to operate the device with nearly zero current during any portion of the cycle of the signal. Although described primarily with respect to a single-device-amplifier stage, the same holds true for any amplifier stage with multiple devices, except that here at least one device must be able to control current flow in the load without being saturated (nearly zero voltage drop) or cut off (nearly zero current). If the single-device-amplifier load consists of the collector or drain load resistor only, the best operating point should be chosen so that in the absence of a signal, one-half of the supply voltage appears as a quiescent voltage across the load resistor Rl. If an additional resistive load Rl is connected to the output through a coupling capacitor Cc (Figure 13.5a), the maximum peak load current Il in one direction is equal to the difference between quiescent current II of the stage and the current that would flow if the collector resistor and the external load resistor were connected in series across the supply voltage. In the other direction, the maximum load current is limited by the quiescent voltage across the device divided by the load resistance. The quiescent current flows in the absence of an alternating signal and is caused by bias voltage or current only. Because most audio frequency signals (and others, depending upon the application) have positive and negative peak excursions of equal probability, it is usually advisable to have the two peak currents be equal. This can be accomplished by increasing the quiescent current as the external load resistance decreases.

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Figure 13.6 Operational amplifier with unbalanced input and output signals and a fixed level of feedback to set the voltage gain Vg, which is equal to (1 + R)/R.

When several devices contribute current into an external load resistor (Figure 13.5 b ), one useful strategy is to set bias currents so that the sum of all transconductances remains as constant as practical, which means a design for minimum distortion. This operating point for one device is near one-quarter the peak device current for push-pull FET stages and at a lesser value for bipolar push-pull amplifiers. When the load resistance is coupled to the single-device-amplifier stage with a transformer (Figure 13.5c), the optimum bias current should be nearly equal to the peak current that would flow through the load impedance at the transformer with a voltage drop equal to the supply voltage.

13.3 Operational Amplifiers

An operational amplifier is a circuit (device) with a pair of differential input terminals that have very high gain to the output for differential signals of opposite phase at each input and relatively low gain for common-mode signals that have the same phase at each input (see Figure 13.6). An external feedback network between the output and the minus () input and ground or signal sets the circuit gain, with the plus (+) input at signal or ground level. Most operational amplifiers require a positive and a negative power supply voltage. One to eight operational amplifiers may be contained on one substrate mounted in a plastic, ceramic, or hermetically sealed metal-can package. Operational amplifiers may require external capacitors for circuit stability or may be internally compensated. Input stages may be field-effect transistors for high input impedance or bipolar transistors for low-offset voltage and low-voltage noise. Available types of operational amplifiers number in the hundreds. Precision operational amplifiers generally have more tightly controlled specifications than general-purpose types. Table 13.1 details the most common application and their functional parameters.

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 2001 by CRC PRESS LLC

Table 13.1 Common Op-Amp Circuits (From [1]. Used with permission.)

 2001 by CRC PRESS LLC

 2001 by CRC PRESS LLC

The input-bias current of an operational amplifier is the average current drawn by each of the two inputs, + and , from the input and feedback circuits. Any difference in dc resistance between the circuits seen by the two inputs multiplied by the input-bias current will be amplified by the circuit gain and become an output-offset voltage. The input-offset current is the difference in bias current drawn by the two inputs, which, when multiplied by the sum of the total dc resistance in the input and feedback circuits and the circuit gain, becomes an additional output-offset voltage. The input-offset voltage is the internal difference in bias voltage within the operational amplifier, which, when multiplied by the circuit gain, becomes an additional output-offset voltage. If the normal input voltage is zero, the open-circuit output voltage is the sum of the three offset voltages.

13.4 References
1. Whitaker, Jerry C. (ed.), The Electronics Handbook, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1996.

13.5 Bibliography
Benson, K. Blair (ed.), Audio Engineering Handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 1988. Fink, Donald (ed.), Electronics Engineers Handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 1982. Whitaker, Jerry C., and K. Blair Benson (eds.), Standard Handbook of Video and Television Engineering, 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 2000. Whitaker, Jerry C. (ed.), Video and Television Engineers Field Manual , McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 2000.

END

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